The Sandman is returning to Vertigo comics under the influence of writer Neil Gaiman.

Shelly Bond, executive editor of the imprint of DC Entertainment, said Monday that Gaiman is working with artist J.H. Williams III to tell stories of Morpheus’ world before he was captured. Titled The Sandman: Overture, the new series will appear bi-monthly starting Oct. 30 in comic shops and digitally, too.

Gaiman last penned stories in the realm of the Endless more than a decade ago. His telling of Sandman has sold more than 7 million copies in nine languages by combining epic story with mythology in a comic medium.

DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson called the return to the “lush, evocative world” Gaiman created with Sandman “a literary event.”

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Okay, read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. And I loved it. A bit harrowing at times (bathtub scene, anyone?), but great, one of Gaiman's best ones.

But could someone tell me something? TV Tropes claims that there are several references to Doctor Who. But I must've missed them, given my fast reading style. Did anyone else notice these references, and if so, what were they?

I bumped into a first Hungarian edition in a second hand bookshop, was too expensive and I wouldn't want to read it in Hungarian anyway, but it was beautiful! The pages were black and it was all rather sinister...

Because all of you people endlessly discuss Gaiman's work, I decided to give him a try (although I read Good Omens many years ago).

First read American Gods. I thought it was very good, if a bit rambling in a shaggy dog story sort of way. One of those books where the author seems to be trying to cram as much of his knowledge of everything into the pages, leaving lots of loose bits around.

Now I'm reading Neverwhere, which is pretty good. The first thing that came to mind is that the characters of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar totally remind me of Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, and I wonder if Pterry's comedy criminal duo is his nod to Gaiman's criminals? In Neverwhere, their team is called the Old Firm, in The Truth it's called the New Firm.

We got The Graveyard Book on audio for the trip. I read it when it came out, but enjoyed listening to it again. Derek and the girls really liked it! It was a nice surprise that Neil Gaiman is the one who read it.

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees:

@raisindot Both the Old Firm and the New Firm are archetype villains - the small, vicious, smart man, and the big dumb muscle, both wearing very nice suits. Both Terry & Neil were getting that from the same original source.

However, Mr Tulip's love of fine art could potentially have been influenced by Mr Croup & Vandermar's love of same... although what the latter two do with it is entirely different.

Nullus Anxietas V - The Australian Discworld Convention10-12 April 2015Novotel Parramatta, New South Wales, Australiahttp://ausdwcon.org

Molokov wrote:@raisindot Both the Old Firm and the New Firm are archetype villains - the small, vicious, smart man, and the big dumb muscle, both wearing very nice suits. Both Terry & Neil were getting that from the same original source.

However, Mr Tulip's love of fine art could potentially have been influenced by Mr Croup & Vandermar's love of same... although what the latter two do with it is entirely different.

I know that the small man/large man criminal teams are criminal archtypes (probably originally sourced from comedy teams like Laurel and Hardy or, more likely Abbott and Costello), but I've never heard the terms "Old Firm" and "New Firm" used in reference to criminal syndicates--only to soccer teams (or the violent fans of soccer teams). Can't find any references to this on Google either.